There were no excuses used, no cursing the divine inside another crestfallen locker room.

There was nothing but unadulterated accountability from an Islanders team that is so close to falling off the competitive cliff, they can smell decomposition below them.

“What did they tell you?” was how coach Jack Capuano opened his press conference after another third-period collapse, this one ending in a 5-2 loss to the Canadiens at the Coliseum.

“It’s battle level,” Capuano began explaining, with his team still three points out of the final playoff spot with 18 games remaining. “That’s the name of the game. It has nothing to do with structure, it has nothing to do with systems, it has nothing to do with anything else. At this time of year, the teams that out-will the opponent will win the game.”

So, coach, do you have the guys in that locker room that can do that?

“Well you hope you do,” Capuano said, “but this is time and time again now that it’s happened.”

On Tuesday against the Senators, the Islanders (13-14-3) went into the third period with a 3-1 lead. They lost 5-3.

Last night, they went into the third period tied 2-2 with the Canadiens (20-5-5), who are the Eastern Conference’s second-place team. Just 48 seconds in, Montreal captain Brian Gionta tipped one home, followed 10 minutes later by a P.K. Subban shot getting deflected in, and 33 seconds after that, Brendan Gallagher finishing a breakaway off the post for the clincher.

Forget the blown calls — of which there were at least two that went against the Islanders — and forget the fact Subban’s shot went in off a defenseman’s stick or Gallagher’s goal went in off the back of Kevin Poulin’s leg.

“You’re going to get scored on, it’s inevitable, right?” Isles defenseman Travis Hamonic said. “We have to do a better job responding the next shift. We have to do a better job at pushing back. The proof is in the pudding with that.”

The Isles pushed back well in the first two periods, getting the team-leading 18th goal from John Tavares and another from Lubomir Visnovsky to negate two power-play tallies from Michael Ryder and Subban.

Poulin was shaky in making 24 stops in just his third start since being called up on Feb. 24, but the third period was not his fault.

So tonight the East-leading Penguins come to town, and they’ll need very little help to throw some more dirt on the Islanders’ grave.

“They have to realize that if you want to be a playoff team, that if you want to be a Stanley cup contender,” Capuano said, “it’s the teams that grind it out, that play with the desperation in their game.”